The more than $100 million in retirement benefits paid to dead federal retirees in each of the past five years stops now, says John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management.
What’s more, that the money will be recovered, The Washington Post’s blog the
Federal Eye.
The comments come on the heels of an inspector general’s report that the personnel office sent out $100 to $150 million in benefits yearly during the last five years to those who were dead.
“There are bad people in the world who will commit fraud, and any program that is administering more than $5 billion a month in benefits needs strong controls,” the Post blog quotes Berry as saying.
Inspector General Patrick E. McFarland issued the first of three audits on the payments in 2005 and urged the personnel office to track its mistakes more closely. The office has estimated that it collected more than $438 million of the $487 million improperly sent out over the past five years, the Post reported.
The office will continue collection efforts on the $113 million “until it is completely resolved,” according to an agency statement the Post quoted.
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